Falkirk 1-1 Bolton - Coyles thoughts - TEXT

More bollocks - I think players who were in the Premier League earning what,about £15,000 per week could manage to keep a decent level of fitness over an 8 week holiday period - don't you?

Not What Coyle seems to think - read here -

Manager Owen Coyle said he was encouraged with the performance against Falkirk, explaining that his team are 'moving up the rungs of the ladder'.

The Whites trailed inside the first minute before recovering through Chris Eagles' long-range effort.

Bolton could have easily scored at least another three or four goals, but Coyle acknowledged that the players' match sharpness will improve with each passing pre-season friendly.

He said: "It wasn't an enjoyable start, I've got to say, but it was a terrific goal with the composure that the lad showed.

"It showed us that you can't start games slowly because you will get punished. And for the following ten minutes, Falkirk were in the ascendancy because they started really well.

"But, bit-by-bit, we grew into the game and Eagles scored a wonderful goal. After that it was chance after chance.

"We aren't too worried about that because in pre-season, you get sharper as the games go by.

"Both of Falkirk's goalkeepers - McGovern and the young lad who came on in the second half - made some wonderful saves.

"These three matches have been very tough and we have got to understand that the Scottish season starts on Saturday.

"We went out this morning and trained the lads hard because it's all about fitness levels - that's why we are here. From now on, we will step things up, getting the players 75 minutes and then 90 minutes.

"We are just short of another four weeks before we get things going on August 18 and the important thing then is that we hit the ground running.

"Step-by-step we are moving up the rungs of the ladder. There have been a lot of pleasing aspects from these last seven days, but we know there is further room for improvement."

Having missed the previous two friendlies, David Ngog once again sat out the game, as did new signing Matt Mills.

Coyle added: "David tweaked his back and the plan now is to see how he is on Friday morning when hopefully he will be able to do a bit of training.

"We will take it from there but it's important that we don't force him and aggravate the injury.

"Matt took a knock the other day but I'm hoping he will be fit and well for Crewe.

"But we won't take any chances in pre-season because we have to make sure the players are at the right fitness levels when they play the games."

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Remember Boro put SEVEN past these and they are in the same division as us now and starting the league at the same time as us!

There's a difference between "fitness" and "match fitness"

I certainly wouldn't expect any of the players to come in out of shape so i suspect they all did keep a decent level of fitness.

If we're blowing bubbles against Burnley then i would be worried.

These guys are supposed to be professional athletes ffs. They should take pride in maintaining their fitness during the close season. Come August 18th I would expect them to be match fit, if not, I will be very disappointed.

I couldn't tell you anything about any of the pre-seasons the club has had in the whole time I've been supporter, so I genuinely don't know if there's a relationship between how well we perform in friendlies and how we perform in corresponding competitive matches.

I do however admit that it's difficult to imagine why we're not putting a few past these crappy Scottish sides if we really have the amount of quality in the squad we're going to need to get back to the Premiership, even without the competitiveness.

doffcocker wrote:I couldn't tell you anything about any of the pre-seasons the club has had in the whole time I've been supporter, so I genuinely don't know if there's a relationship between how well we perform in friendlies and how we perform in corresponding competitive matches.
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Despite what some posts may imply, there is no relationship between the two. Results in pre-season have no bearing on anything. We've had great pre-seasons which have been followed by terrible early season form and vice versa.

It's always nice to see Bolton Wanderers play a game of football and win, but that is where the importance of the result begins and ends.

I agree that pre season will not matter once the season starts. It's the results in the Championship that count. Nevertheless, I'm off to Crewe on Saturday so I am a hoping the team play like they mean business. Winning breeds confidence.

I'm off to Morecambe on Wednesday. I think it's the only pre-season friendly I've been to in my life.

I don't really care about the match itself - my grandmother used to have a caravan in Morecambe, just over the road from the new ground in fact so I'm excited about seeing how the old place has changed since I last went, like ten years ago.

The Globe is a half decent ground when compared to Christie Park. It's not all that big but you can bet the Shrimpers will be up for it.

We should have played them in pre season two years ago when Sammy McIlroy was managing them but the stadium wasn't ready in time.

Sluffy wrote:
Remember Boro put SEVEN past these and they are in the same division as us now and starting the league at the same time as us!

They also conceded 3 didn't they? So if we are using the 2 results as an indiction of how good/bad we are going to be we in the Championship, then it shows we have a much better defence and they must have been all out attacking and forgetting to defend...

We had plenty of chances (which is obviously a good thing) it just seems we cant convert our chances. Maybe Sordell will be able to, but we cant rely on him (Dont know how good he really is for us)

I am hoping we get an additional striker, we could really do with a McGinlay sort of player now...

I don't see why we had to go up there anyway - it's just a few lochs and a load of shortbread. Lugging that table tennis table around must've taken quite a bit out of the players as well.

Wouldn't be surprised if the Scotch mafia hadn't had a few words with our Owen along the lines of - "Och now, wee laddie, ye do nay want ta be winnin' any o' them friendlies now do ye? Me an' ma boys have a few wee poonds ridin' on the outcome, d'ye ken?

And if eye witness reports are to be believed, a certain midfielder has been overdoing the sampling of the local cuisine vis-a-vis the Haggis suppers and the deep fried Mars bars.